The present invention relates to apparatus for producing a plurality of audio sound effects and more specifically for producing sound effects for electronic games such as shots, explosions, motors, gongs and jet plane and automobile sounds.
Present techniques used in electronic games for producing sound effects include analog noise sources whose output is shaped by a voltage controlled amplifier to provide a proper decay or envelope characteristic. Alternatively, digital polynomial counters are also used as the analog noise source.
One disadvantage of the foregoing is that the analog portions of the circuit are not suitable for large scale integration. This is an especially critical cost consideration when home or consumer type video games are to be connected to a home television receiver. Secondly, the present sound effect techniques are usually special purpose directed to one or two sound effects at the most. Individual sound effect generators are used for each effect, resulting in a large number of separate circuits for each game.